SALON

Tuesday, Feb 28, 2012 4:00 PM UTC

Michael Douglas to bankers: Stop imitating me

The "Wall Street" star is the perfect pitchman against insider trading VIDEO

By

Topics: Going Viral, Occupy Wall Street,

Michael Douglas to bankers: Stop imitating meMichael Douglas(Credit: Reuters/Danny Moloshok)

Greed, for lack of a better word, is apparently no longer good.

A deadpan new PSA for the FBI replays an iconic, oft-quoted ’80s movie scene before trotting out none other than Michael Douglas himself to rail against it. “In the movie ‘Wall Street,’ I play Gordon Gekko, a greedy corporate executive who cheated to profit while innocent investors lost their savings,” he says. “The movie was fiction, but the problem is real.”

Douglas goes on to explain that “Our economy is increasingly dependent on the success and the integrity of the financial markets,” and, “If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is,” before directing the viewer to contact the FBI for information on securities fraud.

Speaking in BusinessWeek this week, FBI Special Agent David Chaves revealed that the spot grew out of the FBI’s desire to call attention to their Martha Stewart-sounding “Perfect Hedge” initiative, and to make clear that they still wear the pants, enforcement-wise. “At one point it was reported that the SEC was arresting people,” Chaves said. “That’s when I took the position that we need to be clear on what’s going on.” And who could the FBI recruit to hammer home the message? “I thought there was only one person to do it,” said Chaves: the guy who played ultimate insider douchebag himself.

It’s a noble effort — and a well-timed attempt at public relations — in a recessionary year, one in which the words “Wall Street” have become synonymous with “occupy.” It’s a chance for the U.S. government to look like the good guys, as opposed to just those corporate butt-kissers. But it’s also amusing to see an actor explain that one of his old movies is in fact fiction. I’d like to see Al Pacino working for the Drug Enforcement Authority, explaining that he isn’t a Cuban coke lord. Or Harrison Ford saying that he isn’t really a replicant – OR IS HE?

Douglas, for his part, says the subtleties of the original film seem to have been lost on the cineastes of the financial world. The Times reports that “Mr. Douglas would receive high-fives and handshakes from real-life traders and bankers when he walked the streets of Manhattan.” And now Douglas would like to remind them that just like their hero, they can go to jail.

 

Mary Elizabeth Williams

Mary Elizabeth Williams is a staff writer for Salon and the author of "Gimme Shelter: My Three Years Searching for the American Dream." Follow her on Twitter: @embeedub. More Mary Elizabeth Williams.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 11 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations